Editor's picks 2008

HUMAN by Michael Gazzaniga (HarperCollins) peers into our brains to tell us what makes humans unique and how the brain’s need to navigate complex social interactions eventually led to our capacity for art and science.

In THE BLACK HOLE WAR (Little, Brown) physicist Leonard Susskind recounts his epic battle with Stephen Hawking over the fate of information in black holes and the very nature of reality.